


The Jeffersons

by orphan_account



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Birthday Party, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Vaccinations, adorable children, thomas loves alex so much it hurts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-25 20:44:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7546825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Each Jefferson kid interacting with Alex, one each chapter. This works best if you read <em>1782</em> before this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Birthday Party

**Author's Note:**

> This is set on September 27th in 1783, with Martha "Patsy" Jefferson as the focus. Enjoy!
> 
> (Patsy is literally just based off an 11 yr old i know so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯)

Martha Jefferson—nicknamed Patsy—was turning eleven this month, on September 27th. She had already picked out a birthday dress, a purple gingham pattern that reminded Alex of her father. She was already wearing her red birthday bows on her locs when she stormed down the stairs to meet the family at breakfast.

“Does anyone know why I found _this_ in my bedroom?” She growled, trying to be as menacing waving her teddy bear as she put an emphasis on the word “this.”

“Hey, that’s mine!” Polly said, her mouth still full of French toast and maple syrup. (Thomas was still a proud Francophile, no matter how many times Alex told him that French toast wasn’t as French as it sounded.) She was five now, but still held her teddy bear, Francis, close to her heart. The two were never seen without the other until this year.

“Yeah, dummy, of course it’s yours. But why was _your_ stuffed animal in _my_ bedroom?”

“Patsy, we don’t use that word in this house.”

“What word, dummy?”

“ _Patsy_.”

“Ugh. I can’t do anything in this house!” With that, Patsy threw Francis the teddy bear over next to Polly’s chair, snatched up a plate with scrambled eggs on it, and stomped up all the way to her room.

While Thomas helped Polly calm down (“Shh, it’s all right, Francis doesn’t have any broken bones,” “But she threw him, daddy!”) Alex tried his best not to smile. The theatrics of a soon-to-be-eleven-year-old really were something special. When he looked up again, Thomas must have noticed Alex’s struggle, because he raised one signature eyebrow and started to open his mouth.

“I just really love your kids, Thomas. I can’t imagine what kind of hell you had to go through last year.”

“Our.”

“What was that?”

“Our kids. They’re ours, Alex.” With that statement left hanging in the air, Thomas adjusted his reading glasses and continued on reading the newspaper.

Alex was a bit shocked. He hadn’t really expected that Thomas’s kids would have accepted him into the family so easily, but they did (well, Patsy would occasionally send over a suspicious glance, but you get the point). He hadn’t even expected Thomas to welcome him so much, let alone call his kids… _their_ kids.

Alex and John never really discussed having kids. It wasn’t a common topic of discussion, and when they did talk about it, John wouldn’t have much input and Alex would start ranting about how fucked up the adoption system could get. Besides, Philip the turtle was enough for them.

Again, Thomas caught the unease in the atmosphere, and looked up from the paper.

“You alright, ‘Lex?”

Alex would have spoken up and said, “Don’t call me that,” but those thoughts were overshadowed by the fact that Thomas wasn’t wearing a single item of clothing that belonged to him. He was wearing Alex’s glasses, Alex’s old college hoodie, Alex’s flannel pajama pants, and Alex’s slippers.

“No. Why are you wearing all of my stuff?”

Just to add to Alex’s growing list of surprising things that morning, Thomas blushed the same color as Patsy’s bows and sunk in his chair, newspaper blocking Alex’s view.

“Thomas.”

“Yes?” Thomas squeaked out.

“Why are you wearing my stuff?”

Thomas mumbled something incomprehensible.

“What was that?”

“It’s really comfortable,” Thomas said again, louder. Alex was confused—Thomas was waaaaay bigger than Alex, and his shirt size definitely wasn’t a men’s small. “And it smells like you.”

“Oh, you’re such a teenager. You’re really wearing an undersized hoodie because it smells like your boyfriend?”

Thomas’s face somehow grew redder and he nodded, ducking again under the cover of the newspaper.

“Well, that’s sweet.” Alex reached across the table and patted his hand.

Polly was watching all of this unfold and was promptly disgusted.

“I’m just lucky you guys aren’t this embarrassingly affectionate when you pick me up at school,” She took her plate, too, and went up to her room.

“Don’t wake Lucy!” was all Alex could say before they both burst out laughing.

~

“Can we open my presents now?” Patsy whined.

Her birthday party was nearing its end, and Thomas had promised everyone that they would open presents after they finished the ice cream cake he had bought. The kids were monsters, and practically devoured the entire cake, so he had to keep good on his word and bring out the presents. He just hoped Patsy would be happy with the present they got her.

“That one’s mine!” One of the kids Patsy had invited jumped up and down and pointed vaguely at one of the presents. He stood up to grab it from Thomas and brought it over to the rest of the kids, planting it directly on Patsy’s lap.

“From… Philip. Which Philip is this?”

“Me!” Angelica’s kid raised his hand proudly. “I wrapped it myself.”

“Umm… thanks.” Patsy picked at the lime green wrapping and opened it to reveal a pair of headphones. “Wow, thanks, Philip! I really wanted these!”

Thomas’s face paled. What if she didn’t like his present? Oh, God, now he was really worrying. Alex came over and grabbed his hand.

“I’m sure she’ll love it. Don’t worry about it.”

The rest of the kids gave Patsy their presents, one by one, and eventually tissue paper, cardboard boxes, and an infinite number of taped-on bows surrounded her.

“What did you guys get me, then?”

“We’ll give it to you once everyone leaves, alright?” There were only a couple kids remaining—Ange’s son Philip and Adams’s son Thomas were the only eleven year olds left. (At some point, Maria and Eliza had dropped by with their adopted son, also named Philip, and stolen some cake.)

“Actually, I think she’s had enough waiting. I’ll go get it.” With that, Alex took off, leaving Thomas to deal with a very anxious Patsy and a very tired Polly. (They had left Lucy in the care of Sally the babysitter.) He hadn’t prepared for this, so he just sat in his chair and twiddled his thumbs nervously. Patsy still had an expectant look on her face once Alex reappeared with their gift in tow.

“Wow, that sure is big,” Philip said, eye filling in awe. “Open it, Patsy, I wanna see what it is!”

Patsy began tearing at the paper, and joy erupted on her face once she realized what it was. Thomas loved seeing her smile.

“A bike! A bike! You got me a bike! Oh, thank you so much! Oh, I can’t wait to try it out—thank you so much! _A bike, wow!_ ” The amazement in her voice was almost too adorable for Alex, so he hugged Thomas again.

It was safe to say that Patsy’s birthday party was a success.


	2. Takeout and Tangled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes basically anytime in 1783? idk whenever you want

“Hey, Alex?”

“Yeah, Polly?”

“Can I call you Pop?”

Alex nearly spilled the glass of water onto the couch he was sitting on with Polly. It’s not like he wasn’t expecting one of the kids to eventually ask him something like this, but… at the same time it was totally and utterly out of the blue. They had been watching Tangled on the flat screen, Polly sitting quietly in his lap as he brushed her hair, while Thomas was out getting takeout for dinner.

From what Alex had gathered, Polly called her biological father Daddy, while Patsy called him Papa. Lucy didn’t call anyone anything yet; her first word, spoken just a week ago, was “truck.” He hadn’t thought too much about what they might eventually call him, because if Thomas and him were to get married (his stomach fluttered at the very idea of the word) just “Alex” wouldn’t really do.

But then, the movie was still going on, Polly was waiting, and the glass was still in his hand, so he decided to answer.

“Of course. Call me whatever you want.” He was able to gather his wits enough to present her with a smile.

“I won’t call you Mama, though!” She laughed and gave him a toothy grin. Alex’s smile faltered a bit.

He didn’t like thinking about this, either. About the kids comparing him to Thomas’s late wife. He tried his best to be his own person, and tried his best to show that he wasn’t trying to replace her. Polly was totally fine with this, of course, and loved spending quality time with him; however, Patsy had recently taken to calling him “Alexander,” and not in the loving way that Thomas did.

Alex knew it might be complicated, trying to gain her trust and all. She had known her mother the longest. Hell, she was even named after her—whenever he was around her, he couldn’t help but feel like he was intruding. She had her own experiences, and could judge him however way she wanted, and Alex knew that. But he couldn’t help feel uncomfortable when things like this came up—things like Polly asking if he was okay with being called “Pop.”

Polly had turned her gaze back to the TV for a while now, where Rapunzel was beating someone with a frying pan (oh, Disney). Alex took a sip from his water and sighed. Being Thomas’s boyfriend came with lots of thoughtful silences that he didn’t really expect.

Once the movie was over, Polly had curled up on the other side of the couch with a blanket thrown on her, sleeping far before Thomas had even gotten back with the food. He had driven all the way to some fancy place on the other side of town and had to order for four (well, now three, if Polly was going to bed after this) people. Halfway through the movie, Alex had gotten a text simply saying:

**baefferson <3<3<3**: traffic???? is???? hell????? i don’t understand ny

**baemilton <3<3<3**: don’t text and drive

**baefferson <3<3<3**: like literally no one is moving, wtf

**baemilton <3<3<3**: don’t text and drive

**baefferson <3<3<3**: fine. for you <3

Alex had brought out his laptop and glasses (that belonged to him, thank you very much Thomas) and was writing his seventh paper for Washington when Thomas came back with Patsy, bags and takeout boxes in hand.

“We’ve got burgers and fries!” Thomas yelled, setting the food down on the kitchen counter and plopping down on the couch right next to Alex. “Was the movie any good?”

“It was great.” Alex felt that he should bring up Polly calling him “Pop,” but not while Patsy was in the same room. He didn’t want to create any uncomfortable situations.

He was saved from this, however, by Polly’s next words as she muttered sleepily:

“Pop, I wanna be tucked in with Francis.” Her eyes were still shut and she turned over, clutching the blanket tightly. Alex would have called her adorable if she hadn’t just called him Pop.

Thomas’s reaction, though, was much different than he expected.

“She must really like you, then. She usually only lets me tuck her in.”

Alex’s mouth was still open when Patsy spoke up as well.

“You want ketchup with your burger, _Pop_?”

He looked up, as Thomas would later describe it, like a deer caught in headlights. Patsy was smirking as she shook the ketchup bottle with a flourish, clearly enjoying Alex’s flustered state.

“S—Sure, Patsy.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the corner of Thomas’s mouth tugging upwards a little, trying not to break out into one of his beaming grins.

“So, _Pop_ ,” Thomas said, pecking Alex on the cheek as Patsy brought out the plates, “anything interesting happen while I was out?”

“Polly just wants to call me Pop, is all,” Alex managed, trying not to blush any harder. He was fine with being called Pop—he just didn’t need Patsy and Thomas teasing him like this.

“Sounds great with me. Patsy doesn’t seem too bothered by it. By the way—did you order the blue coke with extra ice?”

“Nope.”

“Oh well. More for me, then.” Alex could feel a smile pulling at his own mouth.

“You’re so appealing, Thomas. I can’t think of anyone more selfless than you.”

“I know, right? I’m the best possible boyfriend anyone could ever wish for.”

Alex finally broke out into laughter as all unease was drained from the room. He and Thomas put Polly in her bed (tucked in, with Francis the teddy bear, of course) and the remaining conscious people in the Jefferson household had their burgers and fries.

They ended the night with everyone on the couch after finishing an episode of _Brooklyn 99_ , Alex curled up to Thomas, and Patsy curled up next to Alex, smiles on all of their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay but,,,,,,, marsai martin as patsy???? am i wrong????
> 
> Be prepared for the next chapter: Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson, aka the smolest of them all


	3. Things Were Getting Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October, 1784.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LMAO YOU THOUGHT

“Lucy? Are you alright?”

Alex had woken up in the middle of the night to hear a strange hacking noise coming from Lucy’s room. He’d thrown the covers off in a second and headed straight for her room, flicking on the lights as soon as possible.

“Lucy? Hey, it’s A—it’s Pop here, you alright?”

Lucy made a gurgling noise, and then coughed loudly. Alex froze by her crib, hands clutching the railing, and called for Thomas. It took him a couple moments before he also arrived by the door, fear washing over his face as he saw Lucy’s condition.

“Lucy?” Thomas’s voice cracked, and Alex could instantly tell that Thomas was much more scared than he was. No matter what, Lucy would always be more Thomas’s daughter than Alex’s, and seeing him like this spiked another wave of dread.

She coughed again, and Thomas swept her up in his arms and started to cradle her.

“She’s got a runny nose, can you get some tissues? I—oh, I don’t want to wake up the other girls, I should—“

“No, it’s fine, Thomas. You stay here with Lucy.”

So he left Thomas with Lucy, catching sight of him grabbing for another blanket to keep her warm in the cool October night before sprinting off to find a tissue box. Alex couldn’t help but worry—back on Nevis, he’d heard about babies getting sick and not getting better, and then the whole thing with his mom—and he couldn’t help but shudder, too. He cared about Lucy, and whenever he saw someone he loved in pain, his mind always jumped to conclusions much too fast.

There was a full box of tissues in the bathroom. He saw that they were the soft ones, the ones that didn’t irritate your nose, and grabbed them. As his feet stepped a little hard on a part of the carpet, the floor creaked loudly, and he winced. He wasn’t so sure if they should wake up Patsy and Polly, either.

Sure enough, however, once he got back to Lucy’s room, Polly had accompanied Thomas in trying to calm down Lucy and make her more comfortable.

“Got the tissues. Is she alright?”

Thomas didn’t look up, but Polly did and ran over to hug Alex.

“She won’t stop coughing and making this ugly sound, Pop. I don’t get it.” She was whispering, and Alex ran his fingers through her hair to calm her down.

“Lucy’ll be alright, okay, Polly? If—if she doesn’t get better by tonight, we’ll take her to the doctor’s, and they’ll fix whatever’s wrong. Okay? You can go back to sleep, if you want.”

“I can’t sleep like this, Pop.” Alex sighed, but not loud enough to let the others hear him, and scooped Polly up to hold her too.

“Babies get a little bit sick all the time. Lucy will be fine.”

~

Lucy was more than “a little bit sick.”

After that night, Thomas and Alex simultaneously agreed that Lucy would be sent straight to the doctor’s office right away, and made sure that one of them would be around to tell Patsy and Polly what was happening. Polly hadn’t gotten much sleep that night, and Patsy mentioned hearing Lucy coughing in the morning, too.

Alex was starting to get tired of seeing panic present in his boyfriend’s eyes and worry lines forming quicker than before. He supposed that he looked the same, of course, but he was always going to be more anxious about Thomas.

When they first got to the doctor’s, they said that Lucy had whooping cough; nothing serious, short-term, very treatable. She’d get better soon, and they also advised them to vaccinate the other girls, too.

“Oh,” was all Thomas could say when he heard. He kept silent for the rest of the visit, only moving to adjust Lucy’s blanket or rub his exhausted eyes. Alex took careful note of this and made sure to ask him about it later.

After dinner counted as later to him. Patsy and Polly had cleared their plates and went off to watch late-night cartoons.

“So… you never got the girls vaccinated?”

Thomas looked up and almost dropped his fork, obviously unprepared for the question. “Uh, well… no, not really. Martha and I… very Southern families, you see, so, I guess, they kind of ingrained some more conservative ideas in our minds—so, I guess, we never really got around to… getting them, uh, vaccinated.” He said “vaccinated” in a slightly lower tone, like he was afraid of what might happen if he spoke the word out loud.

Alex couldn’t say he was too surprised—Thomas had never talked about his parents too much, nonetheless Martha’s family. He knew that there must’ve been some negative point of Thomas having such brash confidence and an (admittedly attractive) accent.

“So… your family thought—“

“Yeah, that vaccines cause autism. And, I mean, they’re a lot like me, so they’re stubborn, of course, and… yeah.” Alex decided to not say anything else about the topic, since Thomas was clearly uncomfortable and was now running a hand through his hair—he hated messing up his hair, this was just a nervous tic of his.

“Okay. I think we should talk about this sometime, but—not now. Right now, let’s concentrate on Lucy. The doctor said she’d get better soon, so that’s some good news, right?”

Thomas smiled and pulled Alex closer.

“Yeah. I’ll go tell the girls. The good news, I mean.” And Thomas was off, a little more spring in his step.

~

Alexander never thought he would have to pick out a coffin that was smaller than himself.

But here he was, holding onto Thomas like he was the last dear thing in the world, asking a man in a black suit and bow tie about which types of wood worked best. He could barely choke the words out, but that was nothing compared to Thomas’s condition. He refused to speak a word, only whispering a short “of course” when Polly asked him to hold her.

The coffin they picked was beautiful. The flowers were beautiful. She was beautiful. Of course she was beautiful.

Alex couldn’t help but worry for Thomas. He’d lived to see three of his five kids die, as well as the woman who gave birth to them, his wife, Martha; the pain must be unbearable. He decided not to bring it up and instead held Thomas closer.

Alex held Thomas closer than ever before and lived on.

~

The day after the funeral, the house was quiet. The girls kept themselves busy reading or drawing in their rooms, shying away from ever having to talk to one another. Alex was fine with that; everybody mourned in their own way. He left Thomas to be Thomas, and so Thomas left Alex to be Alex.

However, after a very silent dinner and dessert, Polly spoke up, causing Patsy to jump a little. She hadn’t spoken the entire day.

“At least Lucy’s not alone.”

Alex took a deep breath and frowned.

“What do you mean, sweetie?”

“She has Mama and John to keep her company.”

Alex’s mouth dropped open slightly, unsure of how to respond to that; Patsy kept her gaze focused on her lap and tried not to cry; Thomas gestured for Polly to sit in his lap, and she did, and he hugged her tight.

By the end of that night, everyone was hugging everyone and things were getting better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel bad for this chapter... and for you guys LMAO
> 
> also: irl tjeffs had, like, at least seven kids, and a whole bunch of them died before most of them could even go to kindergarten. (i mean i dont think they had kindergarten back in the 1700s but anyway ok.) at least two were sally heming's kids, so i didn't mention them, because in this universe sally is the babysitter, and i actually really didn't want to have tjeffs cheat on poor alex. (or the other way around, considering the reynolds pamphlet.) yeah, irl tjeffs was p fucked up. sorry for the long note- if ur a nerd like me you can look more up on the wikipedia page (a+ source, really), have a nice day <3


	4. And All Is Well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> !!! this chapter is nice !!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This! Takes! Place! Five! Years! After! Chapter! Three! (so, if we're following my fucked up timeline, 1789????)

The moon had started to come out once the airplane landed. Alex, Polly, and company had been waiting for at least two hours, so their enthusiasm had somewhat drained, but everyone still cheered when they saw Thomas and Patsy walking down the carpet with their bags to meet them.

“Pop! Polly! Oh—everyone’s here, Papa!”

“Thomas! Patsy! Your flight was fine, I hope?”

“I can’t wait to catch up some more!”

Patsy immediately sprinted for Polly, talking a mile a minute about her flight and her trip and all the places in France she had visited and how great the food was and all of the details Polly could ever want.

The Schuylers also came over for hugs, as well as Lafayette and Hercules, and Thomas saw—was that Washington over there in the corner? He hadn’t thought that they might’ve missed him as much as he missed them.

The first person he embraced was Alex (of course). Several emotions hit him once his hands buried themselves in Alex’s beautiful hair, but among the most prominent was joy.

“I missed you so much, like you wouldn’t believe,” he murmured into Alex’s ear, smiling as his husband hugged him tighter than before.

“Me too, Thomas. Me too.”

After another second or two, they reluctantly let go of each other, and Alex went over to go talk to Patsy (as Polly was getting more than overwhelmed by all of her talking), as Thomas went over to talk to everyone else who had gathered.

“Tommy J! Tom Jiffleston! T Jeffy! My main man Jefferson! What’s up?” Peggy was currently the louder than the airport’s PA, probably due to the fact that she was holding one of those jumbo cups filled with high-fructose corn syrup.

“My summer vacation in France was great, if that’s what you’re asking,” he responded, and the Schuylers laughed. Everyone was happier nowadays.

“Mon ami! How was my home country? Everything there is fine, oui? Ah, you simply would not believe Alex’s midnight, ah, what do you call them—rants, oui, about how lucky he was to have you, all of that, you know the routine—is that not correct, Hercules?” Lafayette glanced up at him, and Herc blushed. Thomas grinned and tried imagining Alex calling people at night to gush about him and, yep, he would totally do that.

“I didn’t think you’d be here, George.” George looked up from his chair off to the side. Thomas still wasn’t sure why Alex had invited their retired boss to see him come home, but he was certainly interested in finding an answer.

“Alex simply wanted his family to be here. I’m family, now, I guess.” George said his words carefully, and something in his voice made Thomas realize that he didn’t completely understand Alex’s reasoning, but didn’t care too much. Thomas took a second to process the words himself.

_Alex wanted his family to be here._

_Alex didn’t have a biological family anymore._

_In conclusion, all of these friends were his family—his real family._

Thomas didn’t stop smothering Alex with hugs the rest of the way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOwwwwww. This was pretty fun to write. I hope y'all liked it as much as I did. (I also love sappy endings.)
> 
> In case it was too short and too hard to understand, here's a lil summary:
> 
> -Thomas 'n Patsy went off 2 France for a vacation 'n now they're back!!!!
> 
> -The Schuylers r sibling goals™
> 
> -Lafayette and Hercules r ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> 
> -GWash is part of the fam now
> 
> -Alex is adorbs and nothing hurts anymore
> 
> Thank y'all so much for reading this addition to this little universe I created! (I have no idea what I'm doing!) Here's the thing: I still want to write. A lot! And, basically, I write this stupid pairing the best, so here's what I have to ask y'all:
> 
> A wedding fic set in this 'verse or a new story: orchestra conductor!a.ham and first violin!t.jeffs? I'm prepared for either, but I want to know what you guys think. Again, thank you so much for reading my works and thanks to everyone who commented! You're all so nice,,,, i love y'all so much. bye!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Drop a comment if you liked it! Or if you didn't like it! I really just made this because I wanted to show the Jefferson kids interacting with Alex, because I didn't mention it that much in _1782_.


End file.
